That seems like a nice road bike, but I don't think I would buy it for touring. The geometry seems road bike, not touring -- wheelbase is short (so in theory less comfortable), chainstay is short (so heel strike on panniers could occur), the crank is not suited for touring (should have triple with lowest chainring at 24 or 26 teeth), the brakes may not be strong enough and I don't see mounts for cantilever/v-brakes so those are not an option, and while I think eyelets are probably there, I don't see them which creates another problem for attaching traditional, inexpensive racks.

i'm sure someone will eventually post saying you can tour on anything. and you can. a friend of mine borrowed a bike similar to that one on a whim and did a 6 day unsupported tour of new zealand on it. rear dropout eyelets are all you really need. this bike probably has them. i've never actually used the granny gear on my touring bike, including a few trips through WV. but, if you decide you want a triple, a bike of this era probably has a friction front shifter, so putting a triple crankset on might be of minimal hassle. unless you hold out for an affordable used/new touring bike, this is very nearly the next best thing. if you look at photos from the 1976 Transamerica ride, you'll see many people on bikes like this sporting jean shorts, chuck taylors, and smiles the likes of which you dont see on too many club rides and organized tours where people ride very nice purposed oriented bicycles. i think most people are better suited to buying a solid bike like this one, and spending the money where it really counts, like a nice sleeping pad, sleeping bag, light & waterproof tent, comfortable saddle, etc. few people enjoy their tours when they shiver all night on the cold hard ground and get soaked when it rains.

I think one or possibly two people with incredibly long feet and extremely small bicycle frames, and huge pillowing panniers, at one time or another, imagined that their heels were slightly close to brushing their rear panniers, and therefore elaborated the theory that, unless you have extremely long chainstays, your panniers will scrape and scrape against your heels and soon you will die of infection caused by the frictive septic panniers and your tragically way back there scraping and rotating heels.

This Nishiki is a terrific candidate for touring, and even if your feet are size 18 they will clear rear panniers just fine, unless you buy horrible huge obese rear panniers. Buy this nice bike and ride it across the country.

I think one or possibly two people with incredibly long feet and extremely small bicycle frames, and huge pillowing panniers, at one time or another, imagined that their heels were slightly close to brushing their rear panniers, and therefore elaborated the theory that, unless you have extremely long chainstays, your panniers will scrape and scrape against your heels and soon you will die of infection caused by the frictive septic panniers and your tragically way back there scraping and rotating heels.

*giggles* And here we see that the real solution is use small panniers

To me, the big downside of short chainstays is that it can make it easy to overload the rear of the bike. Not fun. I really don't like it when the front end is riding on ice. Since the Nishiki should be able to take a front rack, it's not a huge deal. Even taking 5lbs off the rear can make the difference between overloaded and comfortable.

How short is too short varies. I could get 40lbs on the rear of my mountain bike with 42cm stays, no problem. 45lbs was riding on ice. Another rider might run into trouble at 50, or 30 with the same bike.

It is true that one may tour any type of bike that exists. I've commuted and toured on five different bikes (two were road bikes, two mountain bikes, and one a "touring" bike). I had trouble with heel strike with narrow panniers on each of the bikes, except the touring bike, using an older Blackburn expedition rack (an old standard). I assume this was due to my large feet and short chain stays. Before moving to the touring bike, the best solution for heel strike I found was the Tubus Logo rack which allowed me to move the panniers further to the rear.

Another thought on that bike -- does it have room for fenders, if you wished to add those?